Emirates Appoints Orhan Abbas Vice President for The Americas

Emirates, one of the world's fastest growing airlines, has appointed Orhan Abbas as the new senior vice president to lead its commercial operations for the Americas.

Abbas took up the role last month. Prior to his new position, Abbas was Emirates' vice president for India and Nepal.

He has worked for Emirates since 1998, having held senior commercial positions in Tanzania, South Africa and the Middle East.

“The Americas is a strategically important market for Emirates, a fact underpinned by our recent period of significant growth,” said Abbas. “I look forward to the challenge of consolidating this expansion while continuing to seek new ways of developing our service offering across the continent.”

Abbas has a degree in business administration from New York Regents College, Albany, New York.

Having started services to the Americas in 2004, with a daily flight to New York JFK, Emirates now flies to seven North American gateways: Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto. A new service to Washington DC was launched on Wednesday, September 12, 2012.

Starting January 1, 2013, Emirates will begin operating its double-decker A380 aircraft twice a day to JFK, becoming the first carrier to offer double daily A380 service from New York City and increasing capacity by almost a thousand additional seats in both directions every week.

Emirates has also expanded within South America in 2012, launching a new linked service to Rio-de-Janeiro and Buenos Aires in January. The airline also flies daily to Sao Paulo.

Emirates offers exclusive service to its customers, including complimentary chauffeur-driven airport transfers for premium members and an inflight entertainment system featuring movies, TV, music and games.